


Tisket, Tasket

by daydream_believin



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Bookshop, F/M, Fluff, Meat eating, Picnic, Swearing, claire is babey, eating in a bookstore, its late i cant think of more, lake!reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27812608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydream_believin/pseuds/daydream_believin
Summary: Miss Lake!reader goes on a picnic with Douxie after taking care of little siblings.
Relationships: Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan/Reader
Kudos: 14





	1. 50's housewife

Y/n opened the oven. A cloud of heat immediately hit her face. She stumbled back a bit as if she had never opened an oven before and was not expecting this outcome. The old oven mitt covering her dominant hand was old, handmade by her grandmother and covered in decades’ worth of stains. She pulled the muffin tin of porkpies out, placing it on the stovetop. The pastries smelled absolutely heavenly.

“-And of course I feel guilty about it. But I just,” Claire empathically gestured her hands, “I can not believe that she would say something like that! To my face!” she huffed.

“I know Hon, girls can be so catty sometimes.” Y/n sympathized with the teen. She turned her attention to the first batch of pies that were currently occupying the cooling rack. Stacking them onto a plate and moving the new batch over, she turned to Claire, “But hey, at least you know they care though. The lack of your presence makes them upset. I would be flattered.”

“I know, I know. She’s only mad at me because she misses me. It’s still so aggravating though.”

Y/n brought the plate of pies over to the counter. Toby and Jim, who had both been slumped over in their bar stools exhausted from the busy day, quickly perked up at the prospect of food. The growing boys scarfed down several pies each, prompting Y/n to scold them, reminding them to leave some food for Claire.

Claire, still working on her first porkpie, spoke with her mouth half full, “I just wish I knew how to fix things between us,” She dropped her head defeated, fixating on one of the floorboards. “Every time I try to make it up to them, something goes wrong. Trollhunting duty calls. But I couldn’t stand it if they thought I was just abandoning them.”

Y/n opened the fridge door. She stared blankly into it for a solid 7 seconds before remembering what it was that she had opened it for. Pulling out a small apple cake she baked earlier, she tried tapping into her cool big sister wisdom.

“Sometimes,” she paused, “We have to go the extra mile to show our loved ones just how much we love them. It’s not going to be easy. It’ll never be easy, Hon. But if someone is really important to you, it’s always worth it.” She placed the cake in a small travel box and set it aside. Turning her attention to the cooling rack, she began to do the same to the remaining porkpies. “You know, I’m only a call away if you ever need some help. I’d be willing to take care of any ‘trollhunting calls’ for you. It’s important that you get to spend time with your girls. I wouldn’t want you to lose your friends because of my dumbass brother.”

“Hey!” Jim interjected.

Y/n carefully packed up the picnic basket on the counter. She had just found it in the stuffy attic of Arcadian Antiques three days prior. When she spotted it among the glorious piles of old forgotten junk, she was instantly smitten. Rounded, classic wicker, bronze latched, with a cute baby blue bow tied to the base of the handle on the left side. It was the perfect basket for romantic picnics. How exciting.

“Thanks, that means a lot to me.” Claire hesitated for a moment, and then seemingly made up her mind. “Actually, could I take you up on that offer this Friday night?” she inquired. The tone of her voice had gotten a bit lighter. Probably for the small bit of hope now bubbling in her chest.

“This Friday night? You got it girl.”

Claire giggled. “This is really cute by the way,” she gestured toward the basket Y/n was stuffing a couple of cloth napkins into, “I wish I had the time to do cute stuff like that for Jim.”

Jim, who had been quietly listening to the conversation while the girls moved about the kitchen, with his head resting in his hands, pointedly looked away with a blush. Claire giggled a bit more at the sight, her boyfriend was so adorable sometimes.

“You know, as much as I hated old people telling me that ‘a woman must be a wife’ growing up, I gotta say, ‘wifey’ things are pretty fun actually.” Y/n grabbed a couple bottles of what she had originally thought was soda pop when she purchased them from the floor of the kitchen and packed them into the basket. Seriously, how were these things so popular. When she first tried the things, she had done so on the assumption that they were lemon-flavored or something with the yellow labels the bottles sported. Turns out this assumption was wrong and they were actually just water-flavored. Just straight up plain soda water. She packed them still because she needed to get rid of them, and she thought it might be fun to see Douxie’s reaction to them if by chance he also hadn’t had them before either. She added her glass bottle of regular water to the basket also. She placed the full basket on top of the thick folded quilt that she had unearthed from the incredibly full linen closet to take for the picnic. Barbara really had a hoarding problem when it came to blankets and quilts. It was a trait she had admittedly passed onto her daughter, as Y/n herself had added just as many cozy items to the overstuffed closet as her mother.

“I’m practicing my baking more, which I enjoy,” she took the empty platter the teens had cleaned of pastries and placed it in the sink. “I’m knitting Doux a scarf, not because he said anything about wanting a scarf, I just decided ‘hmm it’s really chilly out, I should make him a scarf’ while walking home the other day, crazy huh?” Y/n pulled a face for a moment.

“Sure, I’ve started making him lunch boxes on the days he’s working day shifts at the bistro. But I just want to make sure he’s actually eating on those days, right? That’s not crazy.” She looked toward the ceiling. A spider was in the middle of making his web using the ceiling and the moulding. “Ah, but the other night, we were hanging out with his friends up in his apartment and I just started. fucking cleaning. I cleaned up the party mess, while it was still happening. What the fuck is wrong with me.”

Y/n sighed. “Stars, I think I might actually be possessed by the ghost of a 1950’s housewife. Like, I’m legit scared here.” Claire snorted. “You can laugh now, but just wait until I make you kids eat jello surprise for dinner tomorrow.”


	2. No eating in the library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/n finally makes it to that date with Douxie, but it doesn't go quite as planned.

Y/n’s jacket fluttered behind her as she walked against the wind. It was not supposed to be windy today. The weatherman had said no such thing this morning. Maybe it was time for him to retire. He did just turn eighty-three last week. No matter. It’s not like she didn’t like the wind. In fact the fluttering of her jacket made her feel like some cool fantasy protag. But this was not going to be good picnic weather. They would have to find some rocks to weigh down the blanket. They were going to have to sit in a certain direction so their hair wouldn’t blow in their mouths while they tried to eat. Her hair was going to be a mess by the time she made it to the bookstore to meet Doux.

Douxie sprayed the window front with cleaning solution. As he got lost in space wiping down the window, he almost missed his partner stumbling towards the shop. He moved his rag away from where it covered the view. Y/n was fighting against the wind, and almost losing said fight. It was adorable. Douxie grinned at the sight. The wind had blown her hair so it puffed out, and with her brown jacket also puffing, she looked like a really determined squirrel. He picked up the pace to finish up with the window so he could open the door for her. She marched in and let out a huff.

“Well, so much for our plans.”

Douxie took the picnic basket from her. A lovely scent filled the bookshop, and Douxie took a deep breath. Whatever was contained within the wicker basket smelled fantastic. His stomach grumbled audibly.

“Hungry babe?” Y/n chuckled.

Douxie nodded as he flipped the sign on the door from ‘come in’ to ‘come back with a warrant’. “Outside may no longer be an option, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still have our date. We’ll just do it in the bookstore.”

“The bookstore?”

“There’s a nice area by the window upstairs that we could lay the blanket.”

“But- I- we can’t. We can’t eat in the bookstore, Doux. No eating in the library, Doux.”

“It’s my bookstore, and I think it’ll be fine, love. Besides, there’s café things in those chain bookstores. Those work out fine.”

“Yeah but those have a set area to eat in. No one takes the food into the rest of the store.”

Douxie started making his way up the stairs. Y/n followed him begrudgingly, but she wasn’t going to let this go that easy. Their steps echoed across the shop as they went up, waking up Archie who was sleeping in the sunlight spot the window made on the floor. He stretched and yawned, showing off his sharp dragon-cat teeth. He rubbed on Douxie’s legs as Doux spread out the picnic blanket where Archie had just lay sleeping. The dragon-cat made himself at home on the new bedding, making biscuits a bit before curling back up into a ball.

“This feels wrong.”

Douxie scoffed. “Y/n eating in a bookstore is hardly the most dangerous thing you’ve done on one of our dates.”

Y/n sighed. “That’s fair.”

She plopped down, not choosing this battle. She couldn’t help but run her hand over Archie’s soft fur. Archie didn’t like it when strange humans who patron the shop tried to pet him, but he loved when those he trusted did. He just wouldn’t admit it to them. Dragons were prideful creatures after all. But he did accidentally let a purr slip out at Y/n’s actions. She was delighted. He’d let her have this then.

Douxie was preoccupied with that basket. He crisscrossed his legs as he sat down and pulled it into his lap. He had a sneaking suspicion of what lied inside of it just from the smell. His stomach growled again at the thought. He unlatched the bronze hook and popped open the lid. Yes. There it was. A big smile spread across Douxie’s face.

“Porkpies, my favorite.” He said cheerily.

“Yep, your favorite.” Y/n grinned. She loved cooking for Doux, but she especially loved making him things he loved that he couldn’t just go out and buy here in California. It was nice, special, and personalized. Not just a meal but a little love letter. Douxie was already halfway through a pie. Y/n looked at him stuffing his face with all kinds of adoration in her eyes. Damn, he was even cute with gravy on his face. She started on a pie of her own.

After all the porkpies had been devoured, mostly by Douxie, they laid down a bit before moving on to dessert. They couldn’t exactly find shapes in the clouds like normal, being in the bookstore, but they settled for finding shapes in the ceiling texture while they told each other about their days so far. Douxie’s day was pretty uneventful, apart from the lady who came in looking for a book that just, didn’t exist, not even google knew what this lady was talking about, but she insisted that Douxie must have it in the back. What was with customers and thinking that stores had a magical ‘back room’ that had everything they were looking for. Lady, ‘the back’ was his home. He was sure he did not have this made up book on his personal shelves.

All Y/n had done that day was run some errands for her mother, prepare for this date, and pick up the kids from school. They had stayed late to do some sort of group project with their classmates in the library. Y/n thought it was good for the poor teens to get a chance to enjoy some mundane life every once and awhile. It probably hadn’t gone well though, considering how tired the boys were and the fight that Claire had had with one of her friends. Y/n was always a little worried about her kiddos. Douxie loved that about her.

Y/n sat up abruptly. “Well, time to stress eat! It’s cake time!”

Douxie laughed as he sat up to join her. They didn’t bother even cutting this little apple cake, opting to instead just grab off bits with their hands. Y/n hadn’t brought any silverware, and Doux didn’t feel like getting up to go get some. And to be honest, he preferred this. He ate a lot of things with his hands that most people would not when he was alone. Forks were for fancy rich people. Y/n had watched him do this on several occasions, and had made the note to only ever bring finger food on their picnic dates. Or at least things that could be eaten with their hands with limited mess. It was quirky, but Y/n liked it. Douxie had a lot of quirks, courtesy of living through generations of changing social standards. She never minded the strangeness, and for that Douxie was grateful.

The sun was starting to go down, bathing the shop in beautiful apricot hue. Archie stirred, just to change positions and yawn before going back to sleep. Douxie yawned after seeing his brother-cat yawn, which made Y/n yawn, which made Douxie yawn once again. Suddenly aware of how drowsy the vibe had become, Douxie scooped out Y/n and headed for the living room.

“Let’s go watch a movie or something, before we fall asleep on the hard ground and mess up our backs, ay love?”

They only made it thru the first twenty minutes of the movie before crashing. Cuddling on the couch was just too comfy for them to not fall asleep in each-other’s arms.


End file.
